Board 8 > Nintendo officially releases its Zelda timeline

(+) Yeah! (+)

it's in the 25th anniversary book that just came out




Kotaku translated it and made a nice image of it right here



--
http://i.imgur.com/FczF1.jpg
http://www.yourgamercards.net/trophy/a/CaptainRockman.png

So there's 3 timelines?

It all makes sense... except the center one. Why do TP/FSA go after MM?

--
_foolmo_
mobile computer

Oh god there's 3 now.

--
Aww, I lost to SuperNiceDog, Winner of the Rivalry Rumble Guru Contest

I still wanna stick by Gametrailers' theory for some reason.

I mean come on, THREE separate timelines? Oh wait, Majora's Mask takes place in an "alternate reality", doesn't it. Blast.

--
Currently Playing - StarCraft: Brood War

foolm0ron posted...
So there's 3 timelines?

It all makes sense... except the center one. Why do TP/FSA go after MM?

correct me if I'm wrong but I thought TP and WW both took place 100 years after OoT

so that would put them in separate timelines

--
http://i.imgur.com/FczF1.jpg
http://www.yourgamercards.net/trophy/a/CaptainRockman.png

Adventure of Link = Best Link and clearly the true ending

--
Not changing this sig until the Bengals, Bills, Browns and Lions win the Super Bowl (10/10/10)
The most American Canadian on Board 8 - #9 Bro on Board 8

also its hilarious to see how upset a lot of people are over this already because it doesn't fit the Zelda fanfiction timeline

lawllllll

--
http://i.imgur.com/FczF1.jpg
http://www.yourgamercards.net/trophy/a/CaptainRockman.png

I don't see why the timeline matters at all. Barring the obviously direct sequels, you could probably throw them all in any random order and it would be a valid timeline.

--
_foolmo_
mobile computer

left timeline is the past you left behind in OoT (aka Link fails)
center timeline is the past you arrived at after defeating Ganon in OoT
right timeline is the future you arrived at in OoT

--
http://i.imgur.com/FczF1.jpg
http://www.yourgamercards.net/trophy/a/CaptainRockman.png

From: SHINE GET 64 | #005
left timeline is the past you left behind in OoT (aka Link fails)
center timeline is the past you arrived at after defeating Ganon in OoT
right timeline is the future you arrived at in OoT

Wouldn't left timeline just end up being the right timeline than?

I was always under the assumption though that LA takes place after or in between Zelda 1 and 2.

--
Brawl is like ZSS' breasts. Well rounded for casual players.
http://img.imgcake.com/1319527328883gifad.gif

YetAnothrShadow posted...
Also, I was always under the assumption though that LA takes place after or in between Zelda 1 and 2.Guess not.

Ditto.

How the eff is Four swords Canon!???Also is that book coming out here because IMA buy it.

--
http://gifsoup.com/view2/3219901/nakedlightning-o.gif

I always thought LttP, Oracles and LA Link was the same Link and this timeline supports that

as well as Zelda 1 and 2 being the end of the timeline

it all looks like it fits with the way I imagined the timeline

--
http://i.imgur.com/FczF1.jpg
http://www.yourgamercards.net/trophy/a/CaptainRockman.png

Donno why, but suddenly I wish for a side scrolling remake of Zelda 2.

Don't know about Zelda games but SS is the first one eh?And Time Travels always mess things up.

--
GameFaqs is NOT the place to go for relationship advice.Nobody here gets any action unless it is their right or left hand.Including me.~Dawn and Dusk~

I think we can all agree that the left timeline is the best one

this just further reinforces the idea that each game should be taken as a literal oral tradition with all of the inaccuracies and variables between storytellers that come with that.

Using the same timeline splitting logic that is used for OoT, SS and MM also have a tons of alternate timelines that branch off from it due to the time manipulation in those games. They don't go anywhere interesting but still.

--
_foolmo_
mobile computer

this just further reinforces the idea that each game should be taken as a literal oral tradition with all of the inaccuracies and variables between storytellers that come with that.

I like that idea.

--
At least we got beat by a SuperNiceDog, 2011 Rivals Guru Champ!

Using the same timeline splitting logic that is used for OoT, SS and MM also have a tons of alternate timelines that branch off from it due to the time manipulation in those games. They don't go anywhere interesting but still.

termina isn't even confirmed to be a real physical place, there may be no timelines splitting from that because all of it might have been in link's head

so OoT ruined the zelda timeline... interesting

--
Don't worry guys, I have all the clubs

From: Liquid Wind | #020
all of it might have been in link's head

wat

--
_foolmo_
mobile computer

wat

at the beginning of the game link walks into a tree with some really messed up fungus growing on it and then sees a lot of colorful images, I'm calling shenanigans.

So.... FSA being the origin of Ganon getting the trident just got thrown completely out the window here, given that he has it in both LttP and the Oracle games.

Also, I still don't get the left timeline's existence. >_> Sure, it existing potentially simplifies a lot of stuff (at least, if you do something like move FSA to before LttP in it or something), but I still don't see how 3 timelines were created. F***ing time travel.

--
http://www.nbc.com/parks-and-recreation/exclusives/ron-dancing-animated.gif

have to read the explanation but shine's explanation doesn't make sense, link doesn't time travel into the future seven years at first, he just gets sealed in a comatose state, if there were time travel involved that would make sense at least...

Yeah I can still only understand how 2 timelines are formed:
1. The timeline that Link travels to in the future in OoT
2. The past that Link travels back to at the end of OoT

The "past that Link leaves behind" eventually feeds into the future timeline. It's Link's regular timeline, except there's that gap of a few years where he doesn't exist because he went into the future.

Then there is the past after the end where Link exists as Young Link and grows normally, and there is no Ganon or anything.

--
_foolmo_
mobile computer

YetAnothrShadow posted...
From: SHINE GET 64 | #005
left timeline is the past you left behind in OoT (aka Link fails)
center timeline is the past you arrived at after defeating Ganon in OoT
right timeline is the future you arrived at in OoT
Wouldn't left timeline just end up being the right timeline than?

Also, I was always under the assumption though that LA takes place after or in between Zelda 1 and 2.Guess not.

Does this book explain how the 3 timelines exist?

Oooh. I can actually answer this (and I had no real understanding of any theories of the timeline before hand unlike these "Zelda Scholars")


Left: Link fails, Ganon is left to take over the world. Link never goes to the future and stops Ganon.
Center: Link defeats Ganon in the future, goes back in time afterwards, goes about his merry day.
Right: After Link defeats Ganon in the future, he goes back in time. This is the story of a destroyed world after the evil has been banished.



So basically, after OoT

Left: Destroyed world, still ruled by Ganon
Center: Normal world, Ganon defeated
Right: Destroyed world, Ganon defeated



Make sense?

--
I used to play Skyrim but then I took a patch to the knee.

^ You explanation makes sense. Why or how it would work that way does not at all.

--
"One toot on this whistle will take you to a far away land."
-Toad, SMB3

Well, what doesn't make sense about it to you?

--
I used to play Skyrim but then I took a patch to the knee.

So in OoT if Link dies and fails, then you get the Left timeline
If he succeeds and you beat the game, you get the Center

So how do you get the Right?

--
_foolmo_
mobile computer

Nothing about the actual time manipulation caused by the Master Sword should ever cause a reality where Ganon keeps ruling after the seven year gap. The only thing that changed at the ending to OoT was that Link was sent back to exist in a timeline where he had not existed and that Ganon was (somehow) already defeated. The latter part of which also doesn't really make sense either, but at least we saw it happen.

You could just have randomly splintering timelines, but then why wouldn't that happen in every game?

--
"One toot on this whistle will take you to a far away land."
-Toad, SMB3

Link doesn't even have to die, he just doesn't save the world and defeat Ganon.

The right timeline is when you don't go back in time after you beat OOT.

--
Chrono1219

Left isn't necessarily if he dies.

Think about it this way, every time Link travels back or forth in time, he's basically creating a new dimension.

Just because he went back to the past and changed something doesn't mean that the future he was just in ceased to exist. Same thing for the past.


-The left timeline is the story of the world if Link never became the Hero of Time. It was the future that existed before he traveled to the future.
-The center is self-explanatory.
-In the right timeline, Link travels to the future, defeats Ganon, then returns to the past. Now just because he went back to the past doesn't mean the future he was just in is destroyed. It picks up after the Hero of Time "dissapeared" (went back to the past).

--
I used to play Skyrim but then I took a patch to the knee.

why does OoT only get a success/fail split. who even fails at OoT anyway, they must be terrible.

--
DON~!

I guess I shouldn't say the left timeline doesn't make sense. It actually makes more sense than the center timeline. I'm just saying you never really see any evidence in OoT that that outcome should exist, whereas the other two you do.

--
"One toot on this whistle will take you to a far away land."
-Toad, SMB3

It's not about succeeding or failing. It's just the future before Link defeated Ganon or before he traveled to the future at all.

--
I used to play Skyrim but then I took a patch to the knee.

I think FFD might have something to say about this.

--
FF fans don't hang around the internet on a monday morning they are out doing shopping or asleep hungover from parties. They got lives. -The_Djoker

From: kevwaffles | #155
I guess I shouldn't say the left timeline doesn't make sense. It actually makes more sense than the center timeline. I'm just saying you never really see any evidence in OoT that that outcome should exist, whereas the other two you do.

It was confirmed sometime ago that TP followed the Child Link story, and was confirmed to take place 100+ years after MM in the same timeline. Similarly, it was confirmed that WW takes place after the adult story (Link doesn't return).

You'll notice in TP and WW both have stories of how Ganon breaks his seal and so on. Also in WW if you remember the Statue of link would make no sense if Link traveled back in time after Ganon's defeat. It was also confirmed that PH and ST I guess were direct sequels to Wind Waker.

The Left timeline might also have something to do with the Triforce or whatever too.

--
Chrono1219

How would the world get destroyed on the right if Link defeated Ganon?

--
http://img.imgcake.com/fitgirljpgta.jpg

From what I can tell:

Left: Link loses.
Center: Link wins, and Ganon never ruled Hyrule.
Right: LInk wins, but Ganon ruled Hyrule for the 7 years before time travel.

--
http://www.backloggery.com/myimmortal

Yeah, I'm confused as to how the center and right timeline can coexist.

One of them has to be "canon", and the other has to be a "what if", if that makes sense.

--
http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lcb35gGx0t1qailr4o1_500.gif
http://www.megavideo.com/?v=57N0YAEJ

Ganon escapes (or threatens to escape) his seal from back in OOT and the Sages (or goddesses...I forget which) flood Hyrule to prevent him gaining power.

--
Chrono1219

It's not a "what if". As stated before, just because Link traveled back in time, the future where Ganon ruled for 7 years does not cease to exist. Likewise, the reality where Link travels to the future, defeats Ganon, then goes back in time and lives his life without Ganon's rule still exists too. He basically creates different dimensions by screwing with things in the past which isn't the same thing as a "what if".

--
I used to play Skyrim but then I took a patch to the knee.

Okay here's a question I should know the answer to but don't remember. After Link defeated Ganon and traveled back in time, why is there no Ganon in that timeline?

--
http://img.imgcake.com/fitgirljpgta.jpg

Other than the threeway split, I think the most interesting thing is that the Oracles games are finally confirmed to be an interquel between ALttP and LA. People have spent 10 years arguing about that, how it wasn't the same type of boat in the ending. And we've finally got definitive proof of that!

Also not sure why there would be a three-way split, but the orders presented to help make sense of a few apparent plot holes. It finally explains some stuff about Ganon-he really did die in ALttP and got revived later, and the reason his backstory in FSA was different is because OoT Ganondorf died in TP and got reincarnated.

foolm0ron posted...
I don't see why the timeline matters at all. Barring the obviously direct sequels, you could probably throw them all in any random order and it would be a valid timeline.

Nah. This is true for some games-mainly the older ones, but most games in the series do depend on the events of others for their stories to work. The right timeline is the most obvious example of this, but also some other games in the series. Skyward Sword especially can really only be a prequel.

--
Something something something
^Poorly disguised anti-caps sig

The canon time-travel sequence of OoT goes like this, right?

Child Link
Adult Link
Child Link
Adult Link

In canon, he HAS to go back in time once, right? To complete the Spirit Temple.

That would explain perfectly how 3 timelines split off of that game.

The left path would be the future that continued to exist when Adult Link first "leaves" (to go back to being Child Link to complete the Spirit Temple)

The center timeline is what happens after the end of the game when Ganon never rules.

The right timeline is what happens to the timeline when Ganon ruled for 7 years and then was defeated.

--
Thank you, Eddie Guerrero.
http://bryandanielson.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/photo3.jpg

From: EndOfDiscOne | #204
Okay here's a question I should know the answer to but don't remember. After Link defeated Ganon and traveled back in time, why is there no Ganon in that timeline?

This is something I'm wondering too, and I can only guess the Sacred Realm has somesorta time sealing factors to it or something.

--
Chrono1219

From: EndOfDiscOne | #044
Okay here's a question I should know the answer to but don't remember. After Link defeated Ganon and traveled back in time, why is there no Ganon in that timeline?

The timeline Link returns to at the end of the game? There is a Ganon. He gets captured thanks to Link's information before he can ever take over Hyrule at all.

EDIT: This is the Center path of the timeline.

--
Thank you, Eddie Guerrero.
http://bryandanielson.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/photo3.jpg

The timeline Link returns to at the end of the game? There is a Ganon. He gets captured thanks to Link's information before he can ever take over Hyrule at all.

EDIT: This is the Center path of the timeline.

Oh. So Ganondorf never transformed in that timeline and was never sealed away, probably just died like a normal dude. He was more powerful in the right timeline after being defeated, so was probably able to threaten the seals or something.

--
http://img.imgcake.com/fitgirljpgta.jpg

I've never played Twilight Princess, but isn't his capture and execution mentioned in there at some point or something? That's OoT Ganon from Child Link's time, captured before ever overthrowing the kingdom.

--
Thank you, Eddie Guerrero.
http://bryandanielson.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/photo3.jpg